Of Rubber ducks and Heartbreak
by Writing5Ever
Summary: Have you ever wondered why Arthur Weasley likes and asks about rubber ducks? Why he's fascinated about them? Well, in this story, it explains it all. Valentine's Day is being celebrated at Hogwarts and prefect Arthur Weasley doesn't want to miss out! But, after being turned down by the girl of his dreams, he puts no more thought into the holiday. Up until an unexpected Valentine.


It was Valentine's Day, and love was in the air in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The scent of roses, baked treats and candies from Honeydukes filled the air as the hundreds of students fluttered around the corridors, eager to give their loved ones treats. Arthur Weasley was one of them, twisting and turning about in the corridors of Hogwarts. In his arms was a tiny, bright yellow and orange beaked plastic duck, which he had found in this pile of muggle items for sale at the local store. He was excited, firstly because he had never seen such object before, he didn't know what it did or why it was created, and secondly, he was going to give it to the girl of his dreams. The dreamy Martina Mulligan, who was the prettiest girl to walk Hogwart's corridors, well, according to most of the male population of Hogwarts, that is. Arthur raced down the hallway, and suddenly, setting his eyes on Martina, he saw all of the boys trying to win her heart. Arthur's heart began beating excessively fast. He was scared now. The adrenaline from running wore down, and now, he was a sweaty mess. Quickly, he smoothed back his abundance of ginger hair, straightened his prefect badge, and made sure his robes' clasps were clasped correctly. Facing a shiny suit of armour placed upon the wall, Arthur beamed at it, giving his biggest smile and thinking, 'there. Perfect.'

"Martina! Martina!" He called out, initially getting the raven haired girl's attention. Her glistening blue eyes were the perfect shade of cobalt and her skin was the fairest he had ever seen. Arthur's heart beat even more furiously now, and a trickle of sweat came down his forehead. Quickly, the ginger haired young man wiped it away with his sleeve and advanced to the beauty.

"Happy Valentine's day!" he sputtered, putting forward the rubber duck, with a pink ribbon wound around its neck. Arthur looked up from the floor, expecting a smile on Martina's face. But what he saw was a face that stifled a laugh, and she looked at him like he was absurd.

"What in Merlin's name is that, Weasley?" she scoffed, eying the rubber duck with her cobalt eyes.

"A..a…gift!" Arthur said, thrusting the thing in front of her face, giving her a better look.

Martina screwed up her face disapprovingly and batted the poor thing away.

"No! Don't-!" Arthur yelped, catching the fake yellow bird in mid-air. All of the other teenagers around him laughed, pointing and telling jokes. Arthur froze, looking at his position. He was on the floor, his arms raised and cradling the yellow bird. He quickly picked himself up, only to see Martina's wicked glance again. Arthur turned away, still hearing the mocks and laughter from the other kids. He didn't understand. He planned it all out! He made sure, right on this day, it would be his time to shine and take Martina's heart and sweep her off her feet!

Arthur, who was now boiling with humiliation and rage, began to run, and he heard a silence in the kids behind him. Just then, Arthur tripped on his long black robes, seizing him to the floor once more. The others boomed with laughter again.

He picked himself up, and with one last glance at his schoolmates who were laughing at him, he made a mad dash for the Gryffindor common room, some tears prickling the sides of his eyes.

It was late now, and yet Arthur was still sitting on the Gryffindor common room couch, the rubber duck in his hands. He was now currently mentally debating over throwing the thing into the fire or keeping it. He was fascinated by it, even intrigued, because it did merely nothing, but still managed to entertain him.

Empty love potion vials and gift wrap trailed the Gryffindor common room floors. He was prefect, he should've been enforcing a bit of punishment for the kids who littered. But he found no strength to.

Suddenly, the Gryffindor common room portrait entrance opened. Coming inside was Molly Prewett, his prefect counterpart. She had the same ginger hair, although it was curly and fluffy. She was quite short and a chubby, and it did make her look adorable, but if you anger her, she would give you a lecture scary enough even the dark lord himself would be forced to listen through it. Her eyes were this warm bright brown colour that was homey yet challenging. She had a package in her arms too, tied with a red ribbon and a small note attached to it.

"I heard what happened," said Molly, as she began to walk towards Arthur. Arthur thought, oh great, someone else is here to make fun of me.

"And I'm not here to make fun of you or anything," she said, her eyes downcast and straight to the floor, "but I wanted to cheer you up, you know, remind you there are better things than that snotty little Martina and-" she stopped midsentence, seeing that Arthur seemed to sulk at the sound of the name.

"Hey look, I've been personally made fun of by Martina herself, Arthur!" she said, putting one hand on his shoulder then quickly taking it away. "She called me fat and ugly one time in the girl's lavatory and I didn't sulk like you!"

Arthur just glanced at her, gave her a rueful smile and stood up.

"If you're leaving, the least you could do is take my gift," she said with confidence at first, but then her tone simmered down to a slight, bashful tone. Arthur was mentally debating whether he should accept the gift or not. He's heard rumours of Molly liking him, but he just pushed them aside. When Molly noticed he was mentally debating, she quickly shoved the parcel into his arms and ran up the Gryffindor girl's dorm without any further words.

Arthur plopped back down onto the sofa, and after a few minutes of silence, he decided to open the parcel. Layer by layer of bright pink gift wrap and curly ribbons, he tore them off almost wondering how she found the time to do this. He finally reached this little white box, not a single stain upon it. It fit in his hand, but then again, his hands were quite large. He opened the small box gingerly, lifting the cover and putting it to his side. He pulled out a bright yellow rubber duck, which looked exactly like the one he was going to give Martina. He couldn't help but smile, his love for muggle items resurfacing once more (not that it was gone). Picking up the small card attached to the gift wrap, he read the carefully written note which was decorated with hearts and smiley-faces. It read;

Dear Artie (scratched out Artie, re-wrote Arthur)

Happy Valentine's Day. I knew that you like Muggle stuff because you blabber on and on about it when we're on prefect duty, so I got you this. Hopefully you don't own one of these already.

Love,

Molly

P.S., I like you. ('I like you' was scratched in red ink, and it was barely readable.)

Arthur blushed, and he didn't know why. Then, a thought snapped to him. Molly got him a Valentine's present, but he didn't! So, Arthur resorted to the rubber duck that he was supposed to give Martina, and transfigured the mantelpiece atop the fireplace into gift wrap (which was an oddly coloured shade of pink, as his transfiguration skills aren't the best) and cast a sticking charm at the very end of the wrapping, praying that it would stick together. Feeling around the sides of the couch, he quickly takes out a quill and an ink bottle, and pointing at the leftover parchment on the other couches, he whispered, "Accio parchment!" He then began writing on the piece of parchment, but all that came out was;

Dear Mollywobbles (Mollywobbles was scratched out and replaced with Molly)

Thank you for the Valentines gift. I liked it, and I hope you'll like this one.

Love, Arthur.

He wasn't sure why he put, "Love" but he felt like it was needed to be put there. He then fell asleep on the couch, the package in his arms and the quill resting between his fingertips.

It was morning already, and Arthur blinked to the light in the common room. He fell asleep in the common room! He looked in his arms and saw the package was still there, but when he looked upwards, he saw the unmistakable glare of Molly Prewett. It was just like she was lecturing him mentally. Her bouncy curls were combed backwards into plaits, and she was fully dressed in Hogwarts uniform. Arthur was too, but it was from yesterday and it was full of creases and some ink blotches.

"Molly!" Arthur yelped, sitting up and instinctively pushing the gift towards her arms. "Happy Valentine's Day, I mean late, I mean…" he trailed off, looking down at his shoes. Although he was looking downwards, he could still feel her glare. "Why on earth did you sleep on the common room couch?"

"Be-because…" Arthur stuttered. Although she was a lot shorter than he was, she was more menacing and calculating. He felt her face getting closer to his, and for some reason, he didn't jerk his head at all. He felt her soft lips brush up against his freckled cheeks. Instantly, Arthur's eyes widened in shock and surprise. He looked up, and probably for the first time in his Hogwarts life, Molly Prewett looked unbelievably shy.

Molly started ripping at the wrapping paper and reached the rubber duck. "Are you giving back your present?" Molly asked, obviously bewildered.

"N-no!" Arthur said, clearly taken aback. "It's from me, Molly. It was what I was supposed to give Martina but then I decided to give it to you so-" he got stopped again, felling her lips crash onto his cheek once more. Arthur blushed and looked at Molly. "I-I have to get ready for class!" Arthur said, looking around the room and ready to run up to his dormitory. Molly rolled her eyes.

"So you want me to be late?"

"Arthur, it's a weekend."

"Oh."

"Why are you in uniform, huh?"

"We have a meeting today." She said, looking at Arthur slightly amused but still disapprovingly.

" Well would you like to go with me somewhere?" Arthur said, the words slipping out of his mouth faster than melted butter. He clenched his eyes tight, hoping to be either punched or smacked by Molly. But what he got was;

"I think the prefect meeting can wait. Let's go."

Walking out of the portrait hole, Arthur grinned and awkwardly walked beside Molly.

"Oh, by the way, Molly," he said, "Did I ever mention I liked you?" There. More word vomit.

"Oh," Molly said, clearly blushing. "Well I do too,"

From then on, Arthur Weasley's favorite holiday was Valentine's, and his favorite object was a rubber duck, although he did not know what it does.


End file.
